This award is designed to acknowledge distinguished career achievements, major lifetime contributions to teaching or research, plus national and international recognition of excellence in teaching and/or research. It also acknowledges those people who provide a lasting legacy to the College and the University more broadly, through building successful teaching and/or research programs.
At the CMPH Staff End of Year Celebration and Awards (20 December 2019) Emeritus Professor Pam Sykes received the VPED Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pam joined the Flinders Medial Centre Pathology Service as a medical scientist in 1989 following her postdoctoral research at the University of Oklahoma. Pam was instrumental in the development of the Diagnostic Genetic Pathology service at Flinders Medical Centre, introducing some of the first accredited tests in Australia at Flinders for haematological and solid tumours. She was Head of the Genetic Pathology Service in SouthPath (2003-2008) and then Head of the Genetic Pathology service at Flinders in SA Pathology (2008-2011). Her standing in the field was recognised by her award as one of five Founding Fellows of the Faculty of Science in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 2010.
During these 29 years Pam contributed to Flinders University in undergraduate and post-graduate teaching, running competitively funded (national and international) research groups, membership on University Committees and review panels, and playing a large role in supporting common service research infrastructure. During this time, Pam built an international reputation in minimal residual disease in haematological malignancies and in low dose radiobiology.
In 2011, Pam joined Flinders University as a Strategic Research Professor in Preventive Cancer Biology. Over the course of her career, Pam was Principal supervisor to 9 PhD students, 2 Masters students and 20 Honours students, and published over 81 peer-reviewed publications, including book chapters. Between 1988 and 2017 she was CI on competitive research grants totalling nearly $10 million.